Sticks, branches, and other brush occupy a large volume when collected, as after trimming a tree or bush. Whether such brush is to be burned, hauled away as trash, or handled in any other way, it presents a problem in handling because of its loose state. Thus, it is commonly desired to compress such materials into faggots that are more easily handled.
One apparatus that has been developed for this purpose is disclosed in French Patent No. 2,534,550. This apparatus is a reuseable press employing a rope tourniquet that is located to encircle the branches while they rest on a frame. A rotary handle tightens the tourniquet, compressing the faggot. Then a wire can be wrapped around the bundle as a permanent holder, permitting the tourniquet to be removed for reuse.
A somewhat similar press is disclosed in Norwegian Patent No. 96,427. Here a frame supports the faggot of sticks while a rope or cable is placed around it, one end of the rope is hooked to a lever, and the opposite end of the rope is attached to another part of the frame. The lever is moved to tighten the cable around the faggot of sticks to compress it, permitting the faggot to be permanently bound in compact conditon by another wrapping fastener.
Another type of clasp is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 574,778 to Brady, in which a corn shock tightener is formed of a plate that carries a pulley and one end of a rope, as well as one end of a supply of twine. While holding the second end of the rope, the user tosses the plate around a corn shock and then inserts the rope around the pulley. Thereafter the loop of rope around the corn shock is tightened with compressing action, and then, the rope is temporarily secured between a pair or wires forming a friction clamp. The twine has been looped around the shock by this same process, and the twine is tied as a permanent fastener before the rope is released.
While all of these devices enable a faggot of sticks to be compressed, they are complex and costly. For this reason, each is designed as a permanent, reuseable appliance, and each requires that a separate, disposable binding be applied about the faggot after the compacting has been achieved by use of a reuseable, heavy duty compressing rope or cable. Thus, the work of compressing and compacting a faggot is isolated from the work of retaining the compression on the faggot.
This result is a disadvantage because the disposable, retaining binding is of a different tensile strength than the compressing binding. If, as in the case of the Brady patent, the retaining binding is twine, while the compressing binding is rope, it will result that the retaining binding is of significantly lower relative tensile strength. Hence, the retaining binding may be prone to fail under the expansive tension applied by the compressed branches.
Another disadvantage in the Brady patent is that the friction clamp, formed of wires, has only limited compression. Even when the compression binding is a stout rope, the efficiency of the Brady device may be poor due to an inability of the clamp to hold the rope against the expansive tension applied by the compressed branches.
Still another disadvantage is that the work of wrapping the faggot must be accomplished twice, although Brady attempts to minimize this problem by simultaneously wrapping the faggot with both the compressing rope and the retaining twine. Nevertheless, when many faggots are to be compressed, the extra work and time spend on duplication of effort becomes notable.
Further, it is inconvenient to operate, store and carry around large and ackward devices, especially when the job they accomplish is simplistic in nature. Many people will refuse to bother with seemingly excess complexity under those circumstances. Thus, perfectly operable labor saving devices, such as the known compactors of the prior art, may fall into disuse simply because handling, storing, and using them is too much trouble.
It would be desirable to have available an extremely easy to handle brush compacting device that is capable of performing in place of all of the above prior art devices. Further, it would be desirable to have a brush compacting device capable of performing in an improved manner, such that the compacting and binding tasks can be combined in a single step. Also, it would be desirable to have a compacting device that is extremely efficient, such that the compressing binding can be positively locked even when a high degree of compression has been applied. It also would be desirable to have an equivalent or superior device far smaller than any of those in the prior art, that can be stored compactly and in large quantities. Finally, it would be desirable that such a device be so low in cost and constructed in such a simple manner that it would be reasonable to dispose of one such device with each faggot of branches.
To achieve the foregoing and other objects and in accordance with the purpose of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, the brush compactor of this invention may comprise the following.